Legal Question in Employment Law in New York

Shares and coercion

In 1999 during the dotcom days I was offered 12 percent of all shares in the company I worked for to stay with them for over a year, for $1.00. In 2000 I gave my $1 and asked for my shares because I was being threatened with being fired. For months I was refused, threatend, mistreated, coerced, cursed at and finally they gave me a paper that looked like 240 class A shares and was told that they would make sure I would have to pay so much tax that I would be bankrupt and the coercion continued. Finally I could not take the pressure anymore and agreed to take $125,000 (as ordinary income) for the shares. Needless to say the shares are really worth millions and the ''shares'' they ''issued'' me were never really issued or registered. But in all this the owner and CFO neglected to say that there are also class B shares of which 12 percent are 60 shares. The letter I was coerced into signing only talks about 240 shares (not 300) but also says that I have no more shares in the company.

Do I have a case against the owner for coercion? Can I claim the 60 class B shares? The CFO has since left and is not in good terms with the owner and might be inclined to tell all.

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